About eight weeks ago I realized that the boys had a four day weekend after their first full week of school.  I called my sister who is the proud owner of a newly redecorated two bedroom condo in a great New Jersey shore town called, Seal Isle City. Think less Jersey Shore with the Situation and Snooki and more families.  She rents the place most of the summer but this wild woman has keys and with a phone call it is hers on the off season, if my sister is not using it.

After we decided to use the beach house, and after we had the very tough trip to Long Island to visit my Mom, my husband and I evaluated how we would make a vacation work for Ryan. All of Ryan’s seizures have been brought on by extreme lack of sleep.  Since a seizure would bring us back to the hell of epilepsy drugs we make sure the kid get his sleep, because we know he still has an abnormal EEG and a more epilepsy drugs scare us.    Well, I said, there is a bunk bed at the shore house. We can recreate “the fort” Ryan has been sleeping in since he was three.  Ryan has a bunk bed. He can only sleep with heavy blankets surrounded him hanging from the top bunk blocking out the world. It not only blocks the light but deadens sound.  In the fort he has a flashlight in case his anxiety gets the best of him.  At home it works, he sleeps. Although anxiety gets the best of him mostly in the morning.

We have talked to Ryan about sleeping at the beach for eight weeks at bedtime. We told him how we would be packing up his fort and taking it with us.  How if he did sleep we could play at the beach everyday for FOUR whole days.  This would mean eating out some, scooter adventures, using his boogie board, and digging in the sand endlessly with both his Mom, Dad, and Aaron. We talked about almost every fear a kid could have in this situation from monsters under the bed, evacuation in case of hurricane, and the likelyhood of a bomb being planted in the shore house and our parental response.

Well. Ryan is asleep, in the fort reinforced bunk bed, but he is indeed asleep.  Aaron was generous enough to lend his flashlight to Ryan when we discovered we forgot Ryan’s.

Aaron fell asleep in our bed but we easily transferred him to the room where Ryan is sleeping.

11pm, All is well.

Tine for this battered by bartending person to sleep too.